When Caitlin Clark was injured earlier in the season there was talk about how the ratings and attendance to the games was going to diminish. This much was evident but the league did the same thing they have been doing ever since their "golden goose" came to the league: They tried to pretend as though she wasn't the reason why everyone was watching and that their "fanbase" is not there because of her and that people would continue watching even without her.
Well, as everyone who was paying attention suspected, this was a lie and the reality was that far fewer people were interested in watching the games once Caitlin was no longer playing.
Instead of giving us real information, the media would hide the information by showing graphs that involved when she was playing and would constantly be talking about how the popularity is way up and wouldn't so much as talk about what has been happening ever since she was injured the first time, then how the ratings were when she returned and then how the ratings became once she got injured a second time and lastly how the ratings went after it was determined that she was not coming back for the rest of the season including the playoffs.
They would show graphs like this hoping that the audience would be too stupid or busy to notice that the years on the bottom of the chart do not coincide with what year it is now, but after some smaller groups and YouTube channels started to gain some traction and the world started to figure it out anyway, they were forced to come clean.
Imagine that huh? One player is out for the season and then more than half of the people that were previously watching tune out. It gets worse than just the people watching on TV and how they are no longer doing so (i'm one of the people that doesn't bother watching the games anymore) it also extends to the "butts in the seats" at the games.
When Caitlin was active, the regular season games were going for an average of around $200 and the league was moving any games CC was involved in to larger stadiums in order to accommodate the very huge uptick in demand for tickets. Once Caitlin and the Indiana Fever made it evident that she wasn't coming back, playoff tickets in Indiana are available for less than $20.
The tv crews will still focus on how much of a crowd are in attendance but they cherry pick what information they are going to let people have. Sure, the stands are packed, but they are packed with people that paid next to nothing to be there. One report showed that tickets for non-Indiana playoff games were unsold just a few days before tip-off and they were being sold for as little as $8. Folks, you can't get a Taco Bell value meal for $8.
So when the game is on TV they WNBA is able to pretend as though this is still something in high demand and I just kind of wonder what they think their objective actually is when they lie like this. Do they think that we were just going to blindly believe them and be like "oh, I guess Caitlin wasn't as popular as I thought she was!" No. of course we aren't going to think that and that is why their lies are the more insulting.
Instead of highlighting how attendance dropped in Indiana home games by 1000 to 1500 fans per game, they instead focused on how other teams in the league were having better attendance numbers than ever! Yeah, it's really easy to improve on nearly zero, which is how many people were attending these games before Caitlin Clark brought the league to the world's main stage.
src
It really isn't a surprise when you are able to increase attendance compared to this
They didn't even talk about how games that Indiana was playing in dropped heavily in demand. They didn't talk about how the premium seats went from over $100 (and would be re-sold by Ticketmaster and Stubhub for many times that much) to less than $30 and they definitely didn't talk about how they were again offering "walk in prices" where people could just come to the gate and buy whatever was left at rock bottom prices the day of the game.
It is estimated the Caitlin Clark alone is responsible for around 30 percent of the overall revenue for the entire league and if the WNBA is providing this number, you can be guaranteed that the actual figure is likely significantly higher than that.
So for the players out there crying about not making enough money, what say you now? It has been shown time and time again that very few people are actually interested in this sport and it has now been proven that the ones that do care, well their interest is hinged on one player that the other players in the league seem to be dead set on injuring any chance that they get.
What if you actually aren't worth very much and that is why you aren't paid. Maybe the fact that Caitlin seems to control at least 50% of the overall interest is why she is the one with huge multi-million dollar Nike contracts and you do not have one of those.
The thing is that if these jealous WNBA players would just embrace the fact that Caitlin is the face of the league, everyone would benefit from it. Why is that so difficult for the players and the league itself to admit?